Sunday, September 30, 2012

September Books

Perhaps unsurprisingly, after last month's crazy book binge I didn't read all that much this month.

1. Saints Astray, Jacqueline Carey (ebook) - The sequel to Santa Olivia. Also a lot of fun, and was pleasantly surprised that Carey chose to complete the story. Was a nice, and pretty light, read.

2. Wise Man's Fear, Patrick Rothfuss (ebook) - The sequel to The Name of the Wind. While I did enjoy the second book in Rothfuss's trilogy, I have to admit that it was not as much fun as the first book. The first part seemed to be stuck, and the pace was much slower than I expected. In fact, there was a section of the book that just dragged, and I found myself periodically wishing they could just get out of the darn woods already!!! Despite that, I was thrilled with the direction the book took - both in giving the protagonist new opportunities and in developing his mythology. Rothfus is still one of the best fantasy writers I've stumbled upon in quite some time. I can't wait to find out how the story ends!

3. The Devil In Silver, Victor Lavelle (ebook) - I started my month of scary books just a bit early (two days ago) and though I've about 50 pages left I'm going to include this in September's list. What I find absolutely terrifying about this book (and I'm not spoiling anything here) is that a person could so easily be locked up in a mental ward with all of his or her power removed at the mercy of ambivalent staff. Oh, and the fact that a buffalo headed devil lives down the hall? SCARY! This book was both a Books on the Nightstand recommendation and a Fresh Air author interview, and I'm very glad I read it. Lavelle's writing style is highly enjoyable and his commentary on society is spot on.

One of the big shocks is that I didn't listen to any audio books. I started three separate books, listened to no more than an hour or two of each, and promptly abandoned them in favor of podcasts. Who's to say why that happened!?

Again, October is going to be a bit of a theme month for me with scary books in honor of Halloween. Also, I have a nonfiction book (a history) that I've been looking forward to for a long time and will be reading in honor of the upcoming election.